Jacksonville

Jacksonville is the largest and most populous city in the U.S. state of Florida. It situates in the First Coast region of the northeast corner of Florida, located close to Georgia. Jacksonville is the seat of Duval County,^[1] which the entire city covers most of the county's land area, and with which the city government consolidated in 1968. Consolidation gave Jacksonville its great size and placed most of its metropolitan population within the city limits. Other cities in Duval County includes Atlantic Beach, Jacksonville Beach, and Neptune Beach. A town in western Duval is Baldwin. Jacksonville had an estimated population of 911,507 as of 2019,^[2] making it the 12th most populated city in the United States, the most populated in the Southeast, and the most populous in the South outside of the state of Texas.^[3] Jacksonville is the largest city in the 48 contiguous United States by land area as of 2020,^[4] which is a total of 874.67 square miles (2,265.39 km²).^[5] The Jacksonville metropolitan area has a population of 1,523,615 and is the fourth largest metropolitan area in Florida.^[6]

Jacksonville is centered on the banks of the St. Johns River in the First Coast region of northeast Florida, about 25 miles (40 km) south of the Georgia state line, 357 miles (575 km) east of Pensacola from the Alabama state line, and 328 miles (528 km) north of Miami.^[7] The Jacksonville Beaches communities are along the adjacent Atlantic coast.

People from Jacksonville are sometimes called "Jacksonvillians" or "Jaxsons" (also spelled "Jaxons"). The colloquial abbreviation for Jacksonville is "Jax" or "Jacks".^[8]

Transportation[]

Roads, highways and expressways

FL 21 at I-295 — A Google Maps aerial view of the diamond interchange of I-295 (West Beltway) and FL 21 (Blanding Boulevard) in southwest Jacksonville, Florida. I-295 Exit 12.

Interstate 10 (I-10) and Interstate 95 (I-95) intersect east of downtown Jacksonville, forming the busiest freeway interchange in the region with 200,000 vehicles each day.^[9] I-10 ends at this intersection (the other end being in Santa Monica, California). Additionally, State Road 202 (J. Turner Butler Boulevard) provides freeway access to the Jacksonville beaches from I-95 on the Southside.

I-95 has a bypass route, Interstate 295 (I-295), which encircles the downtown area. The major freeway interchange at I-295 and FL 202 was finally completed on December 24, 2008. FL 9B is under construction and will connect I-295's southeast corner to the Bayard Area. The FL 9B freeway will be called Interstate 795 (I-795) when it is completed and the designation is approved by Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO).^[10]^[11]

U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is one of the major north-south highways, carrying Philips Highway in the Southside, the Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway expressway from Downtown to the Northside, and New Kings Road in the Northside (concurrent with US 23). US 17 is another one of the major highways traveling through the city from the south to the north. It carries Roosevelt Boulevard in the Westside and Main Street in the Northside. US 23 enters the city running mostly concurrent with US 1 as New Kings Road. On its way to downtown, US 23 splits southeast from US 1 as Kings Road and quickly runs to its southern terminus. US 23's other end is in Mackinaw City, Michigan. US 90 travels from west to east. West of downtown, it carries Beaver Street in the Northside. East of downtown, US 90 travels on the line of the Arlington and Southside parts of eastern Duval County. The most notable streets US 90 carries is Beach Boulevard (FL 212), which takes traffic to US 90's eastern terminus in Jacksonville Beach near the Atlantic Ocean. The other terminus of US 90 is in Van Horn, Texas. The last U.S. Highway in Jacksonville is US 301, which travels north and south in the less-populated far Westside of Duval County.

Several regional transportation projects have been undertaken in recent years to deal with congestion on Jacksonville freeways. A $152 million project to create a high-speed interchange at the intersection of Interstates 10 and 95 began in February 2005, after the conclusion of Super Bowl XXXIX. Construction was expected to take nearly six years with multiple lane flyovers and the requirement that the interchange remain open throughout the project. The previous configuration used single lane, low speed, curved ramps which created backups during rush hours and contributed to accidents.^[12] Also, construction of 9B, future I-795, is currently underway.